Kenneth Setton Explained

Kenneth Meyer Setton
Birth Date:	17 June 1914
Birth Place:	New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States
Death Place:	Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Education:	Boston University Columbia University
Occupation:	historian

Kenneth Meyer Setton (June 17, 1914 – February 18, 1995) was an American historian and an expert on the history of medieval Europe, particularly the Crusades.^[1]

Early life, education and awards

Setton's childhood and adolescence were not easy. He supported himself from the age of 13. Setton received his bachelor's degree in 1936 as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston University.^[2] He received his master's degree in 1938 and PhD in 1941 at Columbia University. His dissertation Christian Attitude Toward the Emperor in the Fourth Century was written under the direction of Lynn Thorndike. He also received honorary degrees from Boston University and the University of Kiel. He claimed that knowledge of languages is the basis of knowledge of historical science, and he spoke Italian, French, German and Catalan, besides his favorites, Latin and classical Greek.^[3]

Setton spent nearly two decades finishing his classic work, the four-volume The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571.^[4] For the first two published volumes he received the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America in 1980.^[5] He served as the editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades, published in six volumes from 1969 to 1989.

Setton was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1952.^[6] He received the John Frederick Lewis Prize of the Philosophical Society three times: first in 1957 for his work The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance, then in 1984 for his work The Papacy and the Levant, volume 3 and 4 and in 1990 for his work Venice, Austria and the Turks in the 17th Century.^[7]

Setton was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960.^[8]

Career

Setton began his teaching career at Boston University and the University of Manitoba. Then he taught at the University of Pennsylvania between 1950 and 1965, succeeding another medievalist, .^[9] In the period between 1965 and 1968 he taught at the University of Wisconsin, where he was appointed director of the Institute for Research in the Humanities. After 1968 he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

He had many concurrent appointments, such as director of the library at the University of Pennsylvania, acting director of the Gennadius Library in Greece and Guggenheim Fellow.

Selected works

• ^[10]
  • Book: The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571 . American Philosophical Society . Philadelphia . 1976–1984 . 0-87169-114-0 . 2698253.
• A History of the Crusades (1969–1989).^[11] Six volumes. University of Wisconsin Press, 1955–1989, as editor in chief with Harry W. Hazard, Robert Lee Wolff, Marshall W. Baldwin and Norman P. Zacour as co-editors. This series is known as the Wisconsin Collaborative History of the Crusades.
  • • Book: Catalan domination of Athens, 1311-1388 . Variorum . London . 1975 . 0-902089-77-3 . 73998789. A history of the founding of the Catalan Company and their subsequent control of the Duchy of Athens and Thebes.
• The Age of Chivalry (1969).^[12]
• Book: Europe and the Levant in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance . Variorum Reprints . London . 1974 . 0-902089-64-1 . 1128239.
• Book: Athens in the Middle Ages . London . 1975 . 0-902089-84-6 . 73998786. Setton . Kenneth Meyer .

External links

• Almanac of University of Pennsylvania containing information about appointment of Kenneth Setton as professor of Medieval History
• Almanac of University of Pennsylvania containing information about Setton being awarded with John Frederick Lewis Prize in 1957
• Short biography on Historians web site
• Short biography at Jstor website
• Obituary of Kenneth M. Setton published in New York Times
• The Alfred E. Hamill Letters to Kenneth Meyer Setton at Newberry Library
• A History of the Crusades, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969–1989.
• Setton . Kenneth M. . Saint George's Head . Speculum . University of Chicago Press . 48 . 1 . 1973 . 0038-7134 . 10.2307/2856266 . 1–12. 2856266 . free .

Notes and References

1. Bibliothèque nationale de France . "Kenneth Meyer Setton (1914-1995)".
2. Mayer . Hans Eberhard . Kenneth Meyer Setton (17 June 1914-18 February 1995) . Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . 141 . 2 . 1997 . 241–49 . 987307 . In 1936 he received a bachelorate from Boston University.
3. Mayer . Hans Eberhard . Kenneth Meyer Setton (17 June 1914-18 February 1995) . Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . 141 . 2 . 1997 . 241–49 . 987307 . He believed that a knowledge of languages formed the basis of historical science, and he conversed easily in Italian, French, German, and Catalan. His most enduring loves in this field, however, were Latin and classical Greek..
4. News: Wolfgang . Saxon . Kenneth M. Setton, 80, Scholar And Author on Medieval Europe . The New York Times . 1995-02-23 . 2023-02-19 . Dr. Setton spent nearly two decades finishing his four-volume "The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571" (American Philosophical Society, 1976-1984). A classic study of the era, it remains in print..
5. Web site: Haskins Medal Recent Recipients. Medieval Academy of America. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716181301/http://www.medievalacademy.org/grants/gradstudent_cara_haskins_recepients.htm. July 16, 2011. dead. January 5, 2011. 1980:Kenneth M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571). 2 vols. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976, 1978..
6. Web site: APS Member History . 2023-02-06 . search.amphilsoc.org.
7. Web site: John Frederick Lewis Award. American Philosophical Society. https://web.archive.org/web/20111017231444/http://www.amphilsoc.org/prizes/lewis?page=1. October 17, 2011. live. January 5, 2011.
8. Web site: Kenneth Meyer Setton . 2023-02-06 . American Academy of Arts & Sciences . en.
9. Web site: Awards for Scholarly Distinction. August 20, 2007. American Historical Association. cfm. January 5, 2011. from 1950 to 1965 he taught at the University of Pennsylvania, where he succeeded another eminent medievalist, John L. La Monte. .
10. Setton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer). (1941). Christian attitude towards the emperor in the fourth century. New York: Columbia university press.
11. Setton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer). (1969 ). A history of the Crusades. [2d ed.] Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
12. Setton, K. M. (Kenneth Meyer)., National Geographic Society (U.S.). (1969). The Age of chivalry. [Washington]: National Geographic Society.